


a little unsteady

by mirkandmidnight



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, I'm Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 23:41:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9095767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirkandmidnight/pseuds/mirkandmidnight
Summary: Written for the Fantastic Beasts Secret Santa. Salamanderburn's prompt was wonderful and I enjoyed every second of writing this.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Salamandersickfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salamandersickfic/gifts).



Tina’s home for a quiet evening in, curled up in her favorite armchair with a mug of cocoa and her favorite book, listening to the rain beat against the window. Queenie’s gone out for the night, to some speakeasy or another. Merlin, but that girl is going to get herself into trouble one of these days.

There’s something like a knocking on the window, an insistent tapping that pulls her out of her thoughts and into the present. She glances over at the glass pane and grabs her wand from the end table. Maybe it’s just the rain. She waits, and the knocking returns, this time louder and harder. It’s as if something is flinging itself at the window in a desperate attempt to get inside. Tina stands and heads for the window slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. In one sharp movement, she shoves the curtains aside and peers out into the dark.

Whatever it is slams into the window again, and she jumps back before taking a deep breath and opening the window. A second later, something small and black tumbles into the room and scuttles towards her. It only takes her a second to recognize it as Newt’s Niffler.

But he’s not even in town! He’d gone back to England three weeks ago, what was the Niffler doing here? Tina eyes it, making sure to step between it and the cabinet that contains her mother’s prized silver. But the Niffler isn’t going for the cabinet. Instead, it sits at her feet, staring intently up at her.

Tina stares back down at it, the cogs in her mind turning. “Do you want me to follow you?” she finally says.

The Niffler scurries back toward the window, then turns back to look at her expectantly. After a long moment, Tina sighs and pulls on her coat and hat, tucking her wand into her pocket. She returns to the window, where the Niffler is still waiting for her. Well. That settles that, doesn’t it? She climbs through the window and out onto the fire escape, doing her best to ignore the softly falling rain, and the creature sets off at a rapid pace.

It leads her through the city at an alarming rate, fast enough that Tina almost has to jog to keep up with it. But it stops every so often and looks back, seemingly to make sure that she’s still following. Finally the Niffler turns down a dimly lit alley.

Tina hesitates. She’s brave, certainly, but there are parts of New York that even she won’t venture into, and barely lit alleys in the middle of the night certainly fits those criteria. But the Niffler turns back and snuffles at her feet a few times, then looks back at the alley. She sighs, but follows it into the alley, fingers tight around her wand.

The Niffler stops in front of Newt’s case, which is propped up against a garbage bin, the lid open. Well, that definitely isn’t good. She glances around for any observers, then picks up the Niffler and climbs inside, closing the lid behind her. The last thing she needs is for more creatures to escape into New York.

“Newt? Are you in here?” Tina glances around the shed, but doesn’t see anyone inside. The Niffler squirms out of her arms and leaps to the floor, then scuttles away. “Hey!” Tina cries. “Come back!”

But as she’s standing there, cursing her luck, she hears something odd. Like a sniffling noise, but very quiet, as if something is trying not to be heard. She starts towards the source of the sound, stepping as quietly as she can manage. Eventually she tracks the noise to the other side of one of the tables. She holds her wand at the ready and rounds the corner, a hex ready on his lips.

Around the corner is Newt, huddled into a ball, face streaked with tears. Tina nearly drops her wand, but gains control of herself enough to go over to him and drop into a crouch. “Newt?”

He doesn’t answer, which is more terrifying than any response could have been. Tina grabs his shoulder with one hand and tilts his chin up with the other. “Newt? Are you hurt?” There’s still no answer, so she lets go of his face and starts patting him down, trying to see if he’s injured anywhere. But he doesn’t seem to be hurt or bleeding, which begs the question: what is going on?

“What’s wrong?” she finally asks.

He takes a few deep breaths, pulling himself together enough to say, “I couldn’t help them,” then falling apart again. He practically collapses onto her, face pressed into her shoulder.

Tina’s mind goes blank, but she retains enough presence of mind to put an arm around him as she tries to figure out what exactly is going on. She hadn’t even realized that Newt was still in tow, had thought he’d gone back to London. It’s only been three days since Grindelwald’s arrest, and she has no idea why he’s still in New York.

“Honey, who?” she asks, channeling a bit of her sister.

He shudders in her arms. “Credence. Jacob. Whoever Grindelwald killed to get into MACUSA.”

Tina closes her eyes and wraps her other arm around him, effectively pulling him onto her lap. “Oh, no, honey, you can’t blame yourself for that. That isn’t your fault.”

“I couldn’t stop it, though,” he says, and her heart shatters just a little. How can he put all of this on his own shoulders, and not take credit for all the good he’s done? She rests a hand on top of his head and cards her fingers through his hair. 

“Newt, don’t you dare do that to yourself,” she tells him. “You were magnificent. You know that? If it weren’t for you, Grindelwald would still be on the loose. You did everything could, do you hear me?”

He nods, face still pressed to her shoulder. 

Going more on impulse than anything else, Tina says, “Come back home with me.”

Newt looks up. “I couldn’t possibly impose-”

“You’re not going to stay in here on your own.” She raises an eyebrow. “You’re not going to win this one, Newt.”

He lets out a sigh. “If you insist.”

Tina smiles.


End file.
